Lost Opportunity

Late is Better than Never

North of London are the Warner Brothers Studios. This is where the Harry Potter series of movies was filmed between 2001 and 2011.

The producer David Heyman disliked the books but they were recommended by one of his staff. On a re-reading Heyman was impressed with the work of author J K Rowling and the film rights for the first four books were sold for £1 million.

In 1999 Heyday Films leased the site of Leavesden Aerodrome to make the Harry Potter films.

Leavesden was  a British airfield created in 1940 by the de Havilland Aircraft Company & the Air Ministry in the tiny village of Leavesden, between Watford and Abbots Langley, in Hertfordshire. It was an important centre for aircraft production during World War II. By the end of the war Leavesden Airfield was, by volume, the largest factory in the world.

After the war, the aerodrome was purchased outright by de Havilland, who themselves had a succession of owners in the following decades but ultimately they and the site were acquired by Rolls-Royce. However, by the early 1990s, Britain's manufacturing industry was in decline and Rolls-Royce had sold their interests in the site. Unable to find a new owner, Leavesden Aerodrome was left disused and all but abandoned.

Then in 1994, the production team for the James Bond film GoldenEye discovered the unoccupied Leavesden. The wide, tall and open aircraft hangars were uniquely well suited to conversion into film stages. Eon leased the site for the duration of their shoot and went about gutting the factories, turning them into stages, workshops and offices - in short a working film studio. Leavesden Studios, as the site was rebranded by its owners, quickly became popular after GoldenEye wrapped. A succession of major feature films made use of the site, including the first of the Star Wars prequels, The Phantom Menace, and Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow.

After Heyday Films leased the site  all of the Harry Potter films were made there, along with some other notable Warner Bros. productions, with the Harry Potter series eventually becoming the most successful film series in history.

As the eighth and final film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, was nearing completion, in 2010, Warner Bros. announced their intention to purchase the studio as a permanent European base. By November of that year, Warner Bros. completed its purchase of Leavesden Studios and announced plans to invest more than £100m into the site they had occupied for over ten years, rebranding it again – this time to Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden.

As part of the redevelopment, Warner Bros. also created two new soundstages, J and K, to house a permanent public exhibition called Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter, creating 300 new jobs in the local area. Currently, the whole attraction is dedicated to the making of Harry Potter and is now home to many of the series' sets, props and costumes. It was opened to the public in early 2012.

The tour's layout and overall presentation was designed by the Burbank-based Thinkwell Group in collaboration with Warner Bros, as well as the actual filmmakers, including production designer Stuart Craig, set dresser Stephenie McMillan, creature designer Nick Dudman, construction manager Paul Hayes and special effects supervisor John Richardson. It only includes sets, props and costumes that were created for or used in the production of the Harry Potter film series. Sets include the Great Hall, Dumbledore's office, Diagon Alley, the Ministry of Magic, the Gryffindor common room and boys' dormitory, Hagrid's hut and a 1:24 scale model of the Hogwarts castle (used for exterior shots).

Over the years other elements have been added such as Platform 93/4, the Forbidden Forest, Gringotts Wizarding Bank and Professor Sprouts Greenhouse.

We went to the Making of Harry Potter and the studio complex in August 2024. I have to make a confession. I have not (as yet) read the books. I have seen and enjoyed the movies but I could not describe myself as an aficionado.

But the tour was quite remarkable and although green screens, CGI and special effects play a big part in modern movie-making being able to see some of the sets and take in the scale of what was seen on the screen was quite amazing.

The tour started in a relatively formal and organised fashion. Only a certain number of patrons were taken into a holding area where there was a brief welcome and then a shuffle through into another holding area where there was something of a warm-up talk before the doors were opened and the “experience” proper began. From then on it was up to each individual to proceed at whatever pace was preferred and to follow whatever path seemed best.

The large scale sets like the dining hall were quite astonishing but some of the less awe-inspiring displays were fascinating. The way in which an artist’sd rendering is transformed into a 3-dimensional reality was fascinating and the use of prosthetics and masks for all of the varied characters who made their appearances in the movies was extraordinary.

Gringotts Bank and the power of a destructive dragon was very well done using projection techniques that gave the impression of a dragon advancing upon the spectatior although it was all done of a screen. Quite realistic. You didn’t have to be a child to get a tremble from the experience.

The general recommendation is to take 3 hours on the tour. We went on a bus from central London and were given 3 hours which was ample to explore, study, observe, return, have another look at special exhibits and finally have a coffee before boarding the bus for the return.

Throughout the “experience” the starts of the movies – Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint  - make the occasional pre-recorded appearance. They have all done rather well out of the movies. Special arrangements were made for their education during filming of the entire sequence which took place over a ten year period. The actors “grew up” through and with the world of Harry Potter.

Plaudits have to be given to J.K.Rowling, the creator of the Harry Potter universe. A successful series undertstates the enormous scope mof the creation. The Leavesdon studio is not the only Harry Potter display and Harry Potter theme parks are present in the USA, Japan and China. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is a chain of themed areas in a number of larger theme parks at Universal Orlando, Universal Studios Japan, Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Studios Beijing. Clearly J.K. Rowling has had sound advice regarding the franchising and marketing of her creation.

Rowling has expressed gender critical views and opposes many proposed laws that would make it simpler for transgender people to transition. These views have attracted widespread criticism and are often described as transphobic or anti-trans, though Rowling disputes this.

Rowling believes that making it simpler for transgender people to transition could impinge on access to female-only spaces and legal protections for women. She opposes legislation to advance gender self-recognition and enable transition without a medical diagnosis. On social media, Rowling suggests that children and cisgender women are threatened by trans women and trans-positive messages.

However, because of her gender-critical views Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson have expressed their dismay.

Radcliffe and Watson’s dispute with Rowling dates back to the latter’s intervention in the growing controversy between trans-rights activists and gender-critical feminists in 2020. Radcliffe subsequently issued a statement through LGBTQ+ suicide-prevention group the Trevor Project, saying: “Transgender women are women. Any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people and goes against all advice given by professional health care associations who have far more expertise on this subject matter than either Jo or I.”

There have been suggestions that Radcliffe and Watson are ungrateful or hypocritical in that they benefitted from and continue to endorse the Harry Potter creation but reject the creator.

Radcliffe described it as a “rupture” and said that  despite her role in his life as the creator of Potter “[it] doesn’t mean that you owe the things you truly believe to someone else for your entire life”.

But the Harry Potter franchise rolls on and it occurred to me that there was an opportunity lost after the Lord of the Rings trilogy wound up. Surely a Lord of the Rings experience, bringing together the elements of the film-making and the magic of Weta Workshop into one location would be a marvellous tourist attraction. And of course since The Hobbit trilogy such an exhibition could be expanded.

Admittedly the Harry Potter films were studio productions whereas the Lord of the Rings was heavy on locations but the costuming, effects and all the ways in which Peter Jackson achieved his magic, along with hius production team, would make a fascinating display. True, there would be licensing issues but they are not insoluble. And a mini-display has been set up with the “Hobbiton” set near Matamata. But the opportunity for a larger enterprise was missed.

It is not as though Peter Jackson couldn’t do it. He has done other statis displays, including a Great War Exhibition in Wellington which closed in 2019.

So a recent development makes one wonder whether or not a Lord of the Rings permanent display is in the wind.

In a report in the Herald for 1 September 2024 it is recorded that interests associated with Peter Jackson have spent $105 million buying a piece of land in Lyall Bay. The report suggests that there are rumours it could be the new site for his movie museum. Jackson and his partner Dame Fran Walsh have not publicly commented on their plans for the site.

Earlier plans to set up a movie museum go as far back as 2016. The proposals were far wider than a single Lord of the Rings themed exhibition but which would be much wider. By 2018 the plans for the museum in partnership with the Wellington Council had come to nought.

The suggestion that the project may be revived in line with the recent property acquisition gives some hope that the project may get off the ground. The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit should, in my view, form a central part of such a museum. Not only have they been highly acclaimed adaptation of books that were said to have been impossible to adapt, but the books and the movies have been immensely popular world-wide. They may not be the juggernaut that is the Harry Potter series but the way in which the Harry Potter franchise has been developed and marketed should provide an example.

And my view is that a Lord of the Rings/Hobbit exhibition – or even a stand-alone display like the Harry Potter one in  London – would be a winner. Better late than never.